Page 72 of The London Girls
‘Thank you, we’ll take it from here,’ she said, as they struggled to get her into the house.
‘Ava, can you hear me?’ Florence asked, looking over her body for other injuries. ‘Ava!’
‘Too loud,’ Ava croaked.
Florence looked up and traded glances with a horrified-looking Olivia.
‘What do we do? Should we take her to a hospital?’ Grandma asked.
‘We need to clean her up, do what we can here first,’ Florence said. ‘If you help me move her to the sofa or even your bed, I can tend to her while you call for help. The neighbours four houses down have a telephone.’
Olivia and Grandma dropped down beside her, and together they carefully lifted Ava and carried her to the sofa. There was a blanket draped over the back of it, and Florence tucked it around her, worried about how cold she was.
‘I need towels, a bowl of warm water and any bandages you have,’ Florence said, wishing Jack hadn’t left. He was the one who was good at this sort of thing; her training was much more basic. ‘Ava? I need you to stay with me, all right? I need to clean your wounds and figure out what happened to you.’
Ava made a moaning sound, but she did open her eyes. Her lips were cracked and dry, and Florence sent her grandmother after Olivia to fill a glass of water, helping Ava to lift her head and take a sip when she returned with it.
She noticed there was now blood all over her grandmother’s cushions, and it worried her how much was coming from Ava’s head. When Olivia came back into the room, Florence got her to help prop Ava up a bit more, so she could inspect it.
‘Can you go and find a way to contact George? He needs to know where Ava is. And we need transport to take her to hospital.’
‘No hospital,’ Ava murmured.
‘She’s going to hospital,’ Florence said, ignoring her. ‘Come back as quickly as you can.’
Olivia touched a hand to her shoulder briefly, before hurrying off to call for help, and Florence set to work cleaning Ava’s head as best she could. But it was one of her ears she was most worried about, as it was bleeding profusely now and she had no idea how to treat it. In the end, she wound a bandage around Ava’s head, covering her ear, before moving on to the rest of her body.
‘How bad is the pain?’ she asked.
Ava had moaned a little while she’d cleaned her head, but she seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness now. ‘Bad,’ she whispered.
‘Florence!’ Jack’s voice was unmistakable on the other side of the door as he knocked.
‘Come in!’ she yelled back.
Jack rushed inside, his eyes wide when he saw Ava on the sofa.
‘Do you still have Petal?’
He frowned. ‘Petal?’
‘The ambulance. Where is she?’
‘Yes. Supplies?’ Jack said, clearly realising why she was asking. ‘Do you need morphine?’
‘Yes. And more bandages,’ Florence said. ‘I haven’t even made it past her head yet.’
Jack came closer instead of walking away, and she watched as he crouched down to look at Ava’s head. Blood had already seepedthrough part of the bandage. ‘I think we should just bundle her up and take her to hospital,’ he said.
‘No,’ Ava murmured. ‘I don’t want,’ she grunted, ‘family to know.’
‘Florence, we’re taking her,’ Jack said, scooping Ava up into his arms before either she or Ava could protest. ‘This is our decision to make, not hers.’
‘We’re your family now, Ava. No one else needs to know but us,’ Florence told her.
She watched as Jack limped through the room, and she glanced at the mess she’d left, knowing her grandmother would understand. Florence picked up her jacket and shrugged into it, hurrying after Jack and almost walking straight into Olivia as she stepped on to the street.
‘We’re taking her to hospital,’ she said. ‘I’ll contact you as soon as I know anything. Tell George she’s alive, but her injuries are too bad for us to treat at home.’
